Three thousand Vilnius residents cannot live without masks: the situation is worse than the coronavirus

Rimvyda, a resident of the Salininkai district in Vilnius, has a special ritual. At least once a day, make a cup of tea or coffee and run to your balcony. The woman is glad that the insidious virus has overlooked her, the quarantine has finally ended, but the face masks are in no rush to get rid of it. The better the weather, the more you will need the mask. Especially if the day is not only sunny but also windy.

“It is not just the coronavirus here, the devil knows what it can bring from that garbage.” An even more dangerous illness can come here, ”said Ms. Rimvyda, who was afraid to use the windows of her apartment.

Ms. Rimvyda sees classified construction debris through her balcony windows. More precisely, the landfill. Everything that remains after demolition, like an old house, is transported here. Unloaded, then ordered, reloaded and shipped. Noise, dust, sometimes strange smells.

And like Ms. Rimvyda, at least three thousand Vilnius residents, residents of the Salininkai district, have been living every day for four years.

For four years, they have been asking for help from the city government, environmentalists, health care institutions, ministries and members of Seimas. Write complaints, choose to picket. It shows what is visible to the naked eye: a dump that suddenly appears under your windows prevents you from living in a healthy and clean environment.

It is true that, according to the pollution permit issued to the company and the operating conditions created there, such waste must be shredded and classified only in closed premises in strict compliance with safety requirements. But here in Salininkai, the action takes place outdoors. This angers the residents of Salininkai.

“I live in house 17 myself. That, believe me, when they go out on the balcony in the morning, when they do their activities, that even under this pollution permit it is only possible indoors, and they do all those activities outdoors … They have mobile crushers and that noise is deafening. We don’t hate We are already suffering from the airport, from the planes, and now we have received another source, not to mention dust, because here they not only store non-hazardous materials, ”complained Zbignev Strumilo, vice president of the Salininkai community.

Pursuant to the pollution permit issued four years ago, the Waste Classification Center has the right to manage construction and demolition and other non-hazardous waste. However, Salininkai residents note that a much wider range of waste extends from the site to the district. According to them, even seagulls appeared here, proving that not only building materials can be found in the landfill.

Waste – in the territory of the old mansion

At that time, the entrepreneurs, the representatives of UAB Atliekų typesavimo centras, defend themselves after receiving an unjustified attack and do not intend to end their activities.

“As I say, there are retirees who have nothing to do. So what’s left Just to complain, “said Dovydas Urvakis, Commercial Director of UAB Atliekų typesavimo Centras, in the” Green Case “program.

The “waste sorting center” is surrounded by a large concrete fence. There is an inscription on the door that says it is a private territory. However, it is not exact. The journalists of the Green Case discovered that the land belongs to the state.

It turns out that the Waste Classification Center was established on the territory of the old mansion. But instead of carriages, the historic courtyard of the Wroblewski Mansion is now adorned with mountains of bonfires. The barn building, which is protected by the state but already in ruins, is constantly exposed to vibrations.

The territory of the old mansion became an industrial territory during the Soviet era. It has remained that way to this day. This means that industrial activities are allowed here. Salininkai residents would not object if, for example, a sewing shop operated here.

In issuing the permit for the management of construction scrap in the Vilnius dormitory district, was it evaluated where and under what conditions the activities will be carried out? Doesn’t it violate legitimate community expectations of a safe and healthy environment? What allowed such activities to take place in one of the city’s sleeping areas?

“The pollution permit was issued in violation of the Order of the Minister of Health of 2004 on the application of sanitary protection zones. These activities are subject to a strict 500-meter sanitary protection zone. That contamination permit could not be issued, “said Zbignev Strumilo, vice president of the Salininkai community.

Environmentalists have found a series of violations.

Pollution permits are issued by the Environmental Protection Agency of the Ministry of the Environment. The agency’s representatives declined to comment on the circumstances under which construction waste was awarded for the management of construction waste in the city territory.

Another institution under the Ministry of the Environment, the Department of Environmental Protection, agreed to answer the questions of the “Green Case” program only in writing. It is written that the company “Waste Sorting Center” operates in violation of the requirements of the pollution permit. Last year alone, environmentalists inspected the company five times and found violations.

The territory is not covered with a waterproof cover, the company carried out waste sorting and recycling activities outside the facilities, the doors of the building were not closed during the activities, therefore, dust and other air pollutants could enter the ambient air. In the outdoor area where the storage site will be installed, the waste is simply stored outdoors, not in containers with tent protection against precipitation and possible odors. And this is only part of the violations found for which protocols were issued to the company. The Vilnius District Court is deciding how to punish the Waste Classification Center.

According to the representative of the Waste Classification Center, the company is still young and they have room for improvement.

“Yes, we are young, we have room for improvement. There really are no limits. We cannot guess everything at once to set it up, we are still private equity, we have to buy all the equipment from our own funds. So that constant attack is no longer adequate. The same fire inspections, authorities had already come to inspect more than once. Or there are minor human factors errors. For example, the wall clearance should be 2 meters, and with us it somehow helped 1.8m.

Give feedback, we organize where necessary. The environment is also a regular guest. We even joke that environmental inspectors must establish a cabinet here because the focus is on us. I will say this: the supervisory authorities do not control, one of their essential objectives is to punish. If we count from 2016, yes, several fines have been issued, have been paid, the mandatory instructions have been agreed, “said Dovydas Urvakis, Commercial Director of UAB Atliekų typesavimo Centras.

However, the Environmental Protection Department told the Green Case that the company had complied with only one of the four mandatory instructions: an inventory of the sources of ambient air pollution and their emissions. When asked by a representative from the Waste Classification Center if anything was being done about the dust increase in Salininkai, he replied that the problem was being resolved.

“We are taking action. We had to implement an irrigation system throughout the area in the spring, but Covid-19 has set foot on us, so work stops at this location. But hopefully, after all, the work will continue. The projects are finished, “said David Urvakis.

According to him, the problem of waste flying from the sorting center in Salininkai is also being solved.

“We have established a separate post for a man who, three times a day, is around the area, even though our land is no longer the border, he avoids and collects all the garbage. “It is a reaction and it is a lie that we do not react and do not supervise these things,” said the company’s commercial director.

But that is not enough for residents. Salininkai residents also appealed to the Attorney General’s Office, but have already received a response three times that the deadline for the decision has been postponed. In other words, the conclusions of the supervisory authorities and the courts are awaited.

The municipality is working to eliminate landfills.

Caring for the health of the population is also a duty of the local government, therefore, the team of the “Green Case” program turned to the Vilnius Municipality to ask if there is a place for this dump in a densely populated district of Vilnius.

“From that formal and legal point of view, everything seems to be in order: the company operates, it has pollution permits. It is true that the company is constantly having problems with the correct execution of these emission permits, because due to complaints from residents and municipalities, inspectors, environmentalists manage and find a series of persistent violations, impose fines, but no decisions have been made to eliminate the situation. ” Vilnius Deputy Mayor Valdas Benkunskas.

According to the vice mayor, the only way to resolve the situation is to withdraw or revoke the contamination permit. This would mean the end of such activities. V. Benkunskas states that many pollution permits have been distributed in Vilnius to carry out waste sorting and recycling activities near residential houses.

“The biggest problem is the lack of a unified policy. Those pollution permits were divided from left to right without even asking the position of the city. The institutions managed by the Ministry of the Environment already operate independently here. And the city In turn, it can do what it can: we have repeatedly asked the Department of the Environment to carry out inspections to establish this permanent monitoring and control system, because the infractions are obvious and visible. Well, in principle, the revocation of the Pollution would begin due to these violations, ”said the Vilna deputy mayor.

However, V. Benkunskas says that the latest pollution scandals show that the procedure to revoke pollution permits is very complicated, making such a scenario unlikely. Therefore, the only way that city authorities can curb the polluters, at least to some extent, is by sending law enforcement officials to film and photograph the trash spilling from the area.

“We are writing about administrative fines, but they are symbolic and important in this case so that this company does not review its operating principles or perhaps move to another location,” said the deputy mayor.

90 pollution permits have been issued for waste managers in Vilnius. According to the deputy mayor, such dumps should not remain near residential houses in the future. But it is difficult to say exactly when this will happen.

You can see more details about the situation in Salininkai in the video at the beginning of the article.

Look at the green case every Sunday at 11 a.m. on TV3.

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